Pain Management - A Decade's Perspective of a New Subspecialty.

objectivePain management is increasingly recognized as a formal medical subspecialty worldwide. Israel was among the first to offer a board-certified subspecialty, formalized by the Israeli Medical Association in 2010 which is open to all clinicians with a state-recognized specialization. This paper aims at evaluating the current program across several quality control measures.

designA survey among pain medicine specialists who graduated from the Israeli Pain Management subspecialty.

methodsAll 43 graduates of the program were sent a web-based questionnaire, each related to a different time in the participants' residency period - prior to, during and after training.

resultsForty-one physicians responded to the survey (95% response rate). The most common primary specialty was Anesthesiology (44%), followed by Family Medicine (22%). One-third of the respondents applied to the program over five years after completing their initial residency. Two-thirds reported that they acquired all or most of the professional tools required by a pain specialist. Insufficient training was mentioned regarding addiction management (71%), special population needs (54%) and interventional treatment (37%). A high proportion (82%) responded that the examination contributed to their training and almost all perceived their period of subspecialty as having a positive value in their personal development. Two-thirds of respondents had not yet actively engaged beyond the clinical aspect with other entities responsible for formulating guidelines and other strategic decision-making.

conclusionWe hope the findings of this first-of-a-kind survey will encourage other medical authorities to construct formal training in pain medicine and enable this discipline to further evolve.